Life Game In Other World
Chapter 439

Chapter 439: 439

Click—

The tightly closed smart lock was unlocked, and the tall, bald man pushed open the door.

The dark, tidy interior of the house appeared before the man.

The man did not turn on the light but took out a flashlight and turned it on, its strong glow illuminating the room.

He reached out to close the door and looked around with the flashlight in hand.

The house was neat; the floor was dust-free, clearly someone had been living there regularly.

He walked to the front of the sofa, crouched down, and examined the freshly polished floor, where a carpet should have been, but now, there was nothing.

Soft sounds came from the ceiling, the noise of the house’s ventilation system at work.

The man lay on the ground, inspecting the floor carefully with his flashlight.

He inserted his fingernail into the crevice of the floor, scratching out fine red granular substances. He collected these particles and then carried on deeper into the house.

It seemed the house was long empty; the heavy curtains were drawn tightly, blocking out all light.

He checked every room, the master bedroom’s bed was somewhat disordered, clearly, the owner had left in a hurry without time to tidy up,

The second bedroom appeared to be a child’s room, with the child’s books still spread out on the desk.

All this proved that the family had left very hastily.

He returned to the living room and pointed the flashlight upward; the living room’s ceiling light had been damaged, only the incomplete remnants remained.

Then he walked over to the window and pulled back the heavy curtains.

Behind the curtains, nothing was concealed; bright sunlight streamed into the dark room in an instant.

The bald man looked at the curtains with some puzzlement, seemingly unsure why the family had drawn them so tightly.

Just then, a faint alarm sound reached his ears. He looked down and vaguely saw a vehicle with flashing alarm lights parked down on the street.

His face changed, and he turned back.

Above the frame of the house door, a black mini-camera was watching him.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard violent knocking from outside, "Limen City Police Department, open up!"

——

"How’s it going on Axe’s end?"

Reid put down the tablet on the table and looked at the officer beside him.

"He’s now at the police station."

The officer replied somewhat awkwardly.

"?"

Reid was taken aback.

What happened, has the cat been let out of the bag? Did the previous bribing not work? Has Limen City changed?

"That guy installed cameras in his house and set up an automatic alarm,"

The officer saw the expression on Reid’s face and knew he had misunderstood, so he quickly explained, "As soon as Axe went in, he was caught red-handed. He’s still in the police station, he probably can’t escape the burglary charge."

······

Reid was silent for a moment and lit a cigarette.

"Mr. Reid, should we...?"

The officer opened his mouth to ask Reid if they should get the person out.

"What do you want me to say?"

Reid took a drag on his cigarette, "Call the head of the Limen City Police Department and tell them one of my men was caught by you guys. He broke into someone else’s house and was caught in the act? Not even a petty thief gets caught for something like this, and yet my man was, and at the scene at that!"

The officer didn’t dare to speak.

"By tomorrow afternoon, the whole corporation will know the joke’s on me."

Reid sighed and got up to walk over to the window. "Attempted burglary won’t keep him locked up for long; they’ll either hold him or sentence him to community service. Have someone post some bail to get him released first."

"Okay."

The officer nodded.

"So Pete really isn’t at home?"

Reid gazed out of the window at the street scene, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and asked slowly.

It was clear that this was a situation orchestrated by the other party, who anticipated that he would definitely send someone to check and deliberately disgusted him. If the charge had been a bit more serious, they could have directly employed the power of the group to deal with it.

But with such a minor crime, using the group’s power would make him look incompetent.

He could only swallow this silent loss, pretend nothing happened, and pay the bail money.

Although it wasn’t a big deal, it was extremely provocative.

This was an invisible clash, and he had taken a small loss.

"Mr. Reid, should we conduct a search?"

The officer also slowly stood up and walked behind Reid.

By then, Reid’s cigarette had burned out. The officer took a delicate cigarette case from his pocket, flicked out a cigarette, and handed it to Reid.

Reid glanced at him, took the new cigarette, and casually tossed the stub away.

The officer acted quickly and deftly caught the cigarette stub, extinguishing the ember in his palm.

Reid looked up at him again, bowed slightly, and brought the new cigarette to his mouth.

The officer quickly took out a lighter and lighted Reid’s cigarette.

With the faint smoke rising again, Reid chuckled, "Zadi, that new batch of mercenaries transferred from the Stars Mercenary Corps will temporarily be under your command."

"Thank you for your trust, Mr. Reid," the officer Zadi smiled and then cautiously asked, "What about Pete...?"

"That man, taking his daughter with him and having property in the city, since he didn’t leave on an airship, a normal person would try to hide somewhere in the city and wait for the storm to pass."

Reid turned around to look out the window.

"I will immediately dispatch someone to investigate,"

Zadi stood up straight and saluted, "As long as he’s still in Limen City, he won’t escape!"

"Don’t rush," Reid said slowly, "What if he’s not in Limen City?"

Zadi: "Are you saying...?"

"A normal person would definitely think of hiding in the city, but obviously, that man isn’t normal; he has been extremely cautious from the very beginning."

Reid paused for a moment and narrowed his eyes slightly, "A powerful C-level can have a good life even in the wilderness..."

"But we don’t have C-level combat power now, Mano got killed by him. In the city, we could somehow use the City Defense Army’s power..."

Zadi hesitantly said.

"No, we do," Reid turned slowly to face Zadi, who looked perplexed, casually handing him a set of electronic keys,

"Go to the safe on the lowest floor of the Research Institute and take five of the latest C-VII Strengthening Potions, then send a trial team into the wilderness. There aren’t that many gathering places for Wilderness Wanderers around Limen City. People need to live; they can’t be separated from a community."

"C-VII?" Zadi’s pupils contracted slightly, "The group’s experiment was a success?"

"This effect only lasts for ten minutes; it’s still far from ready."

Reid glanced at him, "Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t."

"Yes, of course."

Zadi nodded vigorously, "I’ll attend to it immediately."

—

Andavi Family Camp

The elderly doctor seemed to have noticed He Ao observing him. He raised his head, looked in He Ao’s direction, nodded gently with a smile, and then continued his rounds.

He Ao’s movement paused slightly.

The elder’s gaze held no malice.

This was rare among Wilderness Wanderers. Living in the wilderness meant inevitably fighting monsters and engaging in deceitful battles with others. Almost all had blood on their hands to some extent, and the eyes of those who had taken many lives often held a fierce and malicious air.

He Ao turned back to look at the middle-aged man, "Doctors don’t have to take part in hunting and fighting?"

The question caught the middle-aged man off guard, and he looked at He Ao in surprise, nodding gently, "The doctors in the family only need to heal and save people; they don’t need to get involved in hunting and fighting."

He Ao listened to the response as he briefly scanned the second floor, then gently asked, "How do you select your doctors? Can you talk about it?"

"Sorry, that’s an internal matter of our family."

The middle-aged man replied with an apologetic smile.

"No problem."

He Ao shook his head, not pressing further; in fact, even without the middle-aged man’s explanation, he could guess what the Andavi family was using to select their doctors.

Transcendents.

The vast majority of doctors on the second floor were Transcendents, some weaker, some stronger. For example, the old doctor he had just seen was very likely a D-level Transcendent.

Judging by this proportion of Transcendents, even if Talent Sequences are inheritable, the number of Transcendents in the Andavi family is somewhat terrifying.

The family must already have a complete training system in place to specifically cultivate individuals who are suitable for certain special Talent Sequences.

He Ao’s gaze moved to a wooden staircase in the corner of the second floor; it had been fitted with an electronic lock that required identity verification, preventing those on the second floor from going up.

Looking at the electronic lock, He Ao softly asked, "May I go up to take a look?"

The middle-aged man’s mouth opened, but he made no sound.

He had just denied He Ao an answer to one question, and to refuse again would seem a bit impolite.

After a moment of contemplation, he took out his walkie-talkie, "Just a moment, I’ll ask the clan leader."

"All right."

He Ao nodded slightly.

While the middle-aged man went to inquire with the clan leader, He Ao’s gaze finely swept over the medical staff coming and going.

"Dad, everyone’s hair color here is so light," remarked Ennie, sticking her head out from behind him.

Although citizens of the Federation have many different hair colors, the overall depth is usually consistent, with most people’s hair color falling somewhere in the middle. Very dark or very light hair is less common.

Wilderness Wanderers and city dwellers don’t have a particular fundamental difference. Theoretically, the hair colors He Ao saw in the Andavi family should be similar to those in Limen City.

But the hair color of the people in the Andavi family is quite light indeed.

And the hair color of the medical staff in the hospital is even lighter than that of the ordinary clan members outside.

However, within the same family, it’s possible for people to share blood relations and have similar physical features.

Standing next to Ennie, He Ao nodded gently, indicating he also noticed the color of these people’s hair.

"Mr. Pete, the clan leader says you may go up for a visit," the middle-aged man returned quickly, "but we have collected some dangerous medicinal materials upstairs, so you might need to be careful during your visit."

"Okay."

He Ao nodded in understanding.

The party of three passed the identity verification and entered the third floor of the hospital.

The third floor was smaller than the first and second floors, but unlike them, it was divided into two areas instead of having partitions.

Arranged in a certain pattern, open workbenches lined the perimeter walls.

In the very center of the floor were several arc-shaped racks that, grouped together, formed nested circular patterns, similar to a library’s bookshelves, filling the central area.

Strange plants or parts of animal tissues were placed on these racks.

These seemed to be the ’dangerous medicinal materials’ that the middle-aged man had mentioned.

Some individuals in pure white lab coats were busy moving between these workbenches and racks.

Among them were Transcendents as well as non-Transcendents.

He Ao stepped towards the shelves at the very center of the third floor.

But before he could get close to these racks, a sense of hunger rose in his heart.

At the same time, Ennie beside him also looked up at her father.

Clearly, she had also felt this sudden surge of hunger.

Both were familiar with this sensation.

It was the temptation of the "Phantom Mushrooms"!

There are Phantom Mushrooms on this third floor!

He Ao followed the feeling of hunger and temptation, passing through rows of shelves until he found a glass bottle the size of two palms at the innermost spot.

A pure white mushroom lay quietly inside the glass bottle.

This mysterious and bizarre ’Human-eating Mushroom’ that struck fear into countless lives outside was lying serenely in the glass bottle, as if it were just an ordinary mushroom.

"Mr. Pete, the items here become more dangerous the further in you go, please do not touch anything carelessly."

The middle-aged man quickly caught up and glanced at the small glass bottle in front of He Ao, stepping in front of him.

"You are researching this?"

He Ao looked at the middle-aged man.

"This belongs to the hospital, I’m not very clear about it."

The middle-aged man shook his head. "I am in charge of guarding the camp."

"Hmm," He Ao looked at the middle-aged man and asked thoughtfully, "Can you feel the hunger?"

"Huh?"

The middle-aged man was taken aback and then pondered, "It seems I don’t feel anything."

He Ao lifted his head and peered through the gaps in the shelves at the people coming and going outside, many of whom were ordinary people.

Yet they seemed to ignore the temptation of the Phantom Mushrooms, walking around normally.

He Ao had experienced it himself; even just one Phantom Mushroom’s temptation was not something an ordinary person could resist.

And since both he and Ennie had felt hunger, the Phantom Mushroom’s ability was clearly not blocked.

He Ao activated Super Memory and took a look around.

On the bodies of the passersby clung faint ’shadows,’ which were their souls.

These were all living people, not monsters disguised as the living.

He Ao faintly felt he had grasped a clue to unraveling the current situation.

He looked at the middle-aged man. "Can we determine who the experimenter is for this bottle?"

"Of course," the middle-aged man nodded slightly, his gaze turning to the bottle, "there is a label under this bottle for the corresponding experimenter... The experimenter for this bottle is No. 1... it’s the clan leader."

"Your clan leader," Ennie looked around with some confusion, the aged image of the clan leader appearing in her mind, "is also a researcher here?"

"To be precise, the clan leader is the head of the hospital," the middle-aged man said with a smile, "Throughout the generations of our family, only the head of the hospital can become the clan leader. Only those with high medical expertise qualify to be our clan leader."

Ennie was somewhat baffled; she didn’t understand how the hospital chief was inevitably related to being the clan leader of a family.

But He Ao was not surprised.

If the hospital were replaced with a temple and the hospital chief with a High Priest, it would be understandable.

In the Andavi family, the hospital held the same status as the temple, it was just unclear which ’divine being’ they held faith in.

"This mushroom must have been brought back by the clan leader’s research team," the middle-aged man scrutinized the label underneath the bottle, "The remark here is... ’Human-eating Mushroom’! This is the Human-eating Mushroom?"

"You haven’t seen this mushroom before?"

He Ao asked softly.

"Some in our clan have seen it, I just didn’t remember at the moment, this thing looks so ordinary," the middle-aged man pondered, "Many who have seen this mushroom died, so the clan leader told us to stay away from the Human-eating Mushroom’s location as much as possible."

"Isn’t it dangerous for you to be researching this?"

Ennie asked with confusion.

If they had been warned not to get close, yet they brought the Phantom Mushrooms into the heart of the encampment for research, that move seemed overly risky.

"Inside the hospital, it’s absolutely safe."

The middle-aged man said with certainty.

Ennie nodded, only half understanding.

He Ao, on the other hand, didn’t delve further into this topic. Instead, he said to the middle-aged man, "Perhaps I could talk with your clan leader again, I know some information about this ’Human-eating Mushroom’ and might have a probable solution to these mushrooms."

The middle-aged man looked shocked at first, then somewhat disbelievingly asked He Ao, "Really?"